Along with a nice marina, Leerdam is an art glass center and right next to the marina is a center for glass blowing. They have a workshop all set up with seats and a narrator to explain the action. Lucky for us the narrator spoke excellent English and was willing to spend some time with us explaining what was going on. Some of the pieces made in the workshop were spectacular. Of course there was a shop next door so we popped for some hand blown wine glasses. Ever the practical ones, we are!
After lunch it was underway again, but just a short day. It was just a couple hours to our next stop, Gorinchem. After that it would be through a lock and across the mighty Waal!
Gorcum to Den Bosch
Since we had a "long" day the next day, we just had the afternoon to wander Gorinchem. Again, the mix of old and new; a medieval building next to a "Dutch Modern" glass and brick building. No new buildings along this stretch, though.
Turn around, Cathy Jo!
The city has made some major upgrades on their city docks. Again we were moored right next to the center of town. The docks were in great shape and the bathroom/shower/ wasserette building was brand new. In fact, the washer and drier were couple months old Mieles with touch screens and automatically provided and dispensed laundry soap. Since it was only about 5 euros a load, it was laundry time!
The Gorinchem passantenhaven
Crossing the Waal turned out to be not that big a deal either, although we did have to go about 1.5 km upstream to the mouth of the Maas and we were only making about 2 knots. This little offshoot of the Maas had very little current so we were able to make good time down to our next stop, 's Hertogenbosch, known to the locals as "Den Bosch," which we can begin to pronounce.
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